Britain, which takes over the EU presidency tomorrow, is considering a number of proposals to reform the way the European Union spends its money, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday.

Straw said: “There are a number (of proposals for budget reform) which have been put forward, not necessarily by the United Kingdom... We will reflect and digest on those before coming forward with our proposals.”
He added:
“I am aware of the concerns in France (and elsewhere) about the services directive ... and our own responsibility as the presidency is to try to find a way through,” and “I’m one of the few people who have actually read the whole of the draft services directive - not a read I’d recommend - as part of the effort to find a way through on this, and that’s what we shall do.”

Straw reiterated Britain’s support for Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union in 2007.

During a visit to Bucharest on Monday (27 June), German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries voiced support for the government's action plan for judicial reforms and combating corruption, two key commitments made during accession talks with the EU. Following talks with Romanian counterpart Monica Macovei, Zypries said Germany would continue assisting Romania in this process. Twelve German experts are currently consulting with Bucharest. (Nine o'clock, Rompres - 27/06/05)

Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the frontrunners to win the next French presidential elections, thinks that EU enlargement should be suspended until the EU solves its internal political crisis caused by the French and Dutch Noes to the Constitution. The suspension would not affect the accession of Bulgaria and Romania but would deal a blow to the hopes of Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Ukraine.
The statement comes just before the Commission presents, on 29 June 2005, a framework for rules of negotiations with Turkey. EU governments must approve this framework before the negotiations are set to start on 3 October 2005.
Sarkozy's comments have been played down by other EU members. "Europe must honour its word even if it was unpopular," said the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
The incoming British Presidency, which will host the start of the negotiations, is very favourable to Turkish membership. [Euractiv]

The four-party centre-right coalition, which came to power in Romania last December, has survived its first major political challenge. On 22 June, both chambers of parliament soundly rejected a censure motion initiated by the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD).
A total of 265 senators and deputies voted against the motion, while 186 supported it. The PSD, which led Romania for 11 of the 15 years since the collapse of communism, used the issues of judicial reform and property laws as grounds for launching the attack on the cabinet. The opposition strongly objected to a government-sponsored, 17-law package meant to address reforms the country must complete if it is to enter the EU on schedule in 2007.
Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and his team are "defying the legislators and breaking the Constitution," said PSD Senator Dan Mircea Popescu. The opposition charged that the government is promoting a politically controlled justice system and is tinkering with a property system that was only recently stabilised.
Rebuffing the censure motion, Tariceanu described it as a "motion against Romania's accession into the EU" and implied that the PSD is to blame for the possibility that the country could see its accession delayed. "The reform of the justice and the fight against corruption are two key-areas where the safeguard clause might be imposed and that's due to the PSD government ... We fight for an independent and honest justice and I know this is worrying you," Tariceanu said.
The EU has weighed in on the side of the government. "It would be a pity if the parliament will reject this legislative package. I believe it would affect the perspectives of Romania's accession and would lift question marks regarding parliament's support for the integration process," European Commission delegation head Jonathan Scheele was quoted as saying by the online news service HotNews.
Lawmakers ultimately adopted the 17-law package. Even if signed by President Traian Basescu, however, there is a chance the legislation would not take effect. The PSD has already announced it will file an appeal at the Constitutional Court. Since many of the judges are former top PSD officials, analysts are not ruling out the possibility that the opposition will manage to derail the legislation. [Southeast European Times ]

Bela Marko, state minister for coordination of culture, education and European integration activities, on Friday [24 June] had an official meeting with European Union Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Laszlo Kovacs, on a visit to Romania.

"We take a special interest that Romania should join the EU as soon as possible, because this fact will create a state of economic and political safety," the Government Press Bureau quoted Marko as saying.
He added that Romania is aware of the tasks to be fulfilled until 2007, assuring the commissioner that the government is determined to take the necessary steps in justice, fight against corruption, administrative consolidation and fiscal reform.

Laszlo Kovacs said that, despite all difficulties caused by the impossibility to get political approval from the European Council for the EU financial perspectives and by rejection in France and the Netherlands of the European Union's Constitution, the enlargement process to Romania and Bulgaria will go unscathed. The European Commissioner added that Romania can rely on the European Commission's support and on his own support.

On the occasion of the European Commission's monitoring mission, he appreciated the results under Chapter No 10 - Taxation, and Chapter No 25 - Customs Union. He stressed that there are still problems to be solved in the interoperability and interconnectivity systems, the intra-EU VAT and excise duties.

[Media Monitor]

Slovakian Parliament decided on 2005 June 20 to approve the Balkan countries Bulgaria and Romania joining the EU. Slovakia is the first country among the EU25 to approve this agreement. The enlargement agreement must be ratified in all EU25 countries. The ratification process should be finished by the end of 2006 in order for Bulgaria and Romania, who already have seats allocated in the European Parliament and are taking part in EU meetings as observers, to be able to officially join in January 2007.

Also Tuesday, Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iakovou voiced support for Romania's EU entry. He did so during a meeting in Bucharest with President Traian Basescu.

German opposition leader and possible future chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out in favour of the EU upholding its commitments to Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.

In an interview with the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mrs Merkel said that "with its enlargement policy to date, the EU has reached the limits of its ability to integrate".

Her words appear to draw a line under the several negative comments that have been emerging over the last months and in the end of May from Christian Democrat quarters implying that even Bulgaria and Romania's membership - planned for 2007 - is no longer so sure.

But the CDU leader drew the line at both Turkey's and the Balkans' membership by adding "but by then a point will have been reached where we stop".

During last week, during the EU summit, Chirac and Schröder, on the other hand, have also sought to strengthen European institutions and regard European political integration as an inevitable process that will enable the continent to develop its own foreign policy and stand up to the US.

Although many jurnals worry that "negotiations (with Turkey) will start on schedule but be long and tough", only few people rememeber at this stage that Romania's accession to EU has followed a long and difficult way:

• Romania was the first Central and Eastern European country to have established official relations with the European Community. The bilateral agreement on Romania's inclusion in the EC's Generalised System of Preferences dates back to 1974, and another Agreement on Industrial Products was signed in 1980.
• We would like to remember here that Romania submitted its application for EU membership on June 22, 1995, about at the same time with the other ten countries that already joined EU in 2004. In March 1998 accession negotiations started with six candidate states: Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Cyprus.
• On October 13, 1999, the Commission recommended EU Member States to start negotiations with Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Malta. This proposal was officially endorsed by the Member States at the European Council of Helsinki, on December 12, 1999. Romania officially started accession negotiations on February 15, 2000.
• Although accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania started in 1999, around the same time as with the ten countries set to join the EU in May 2004, these two countries have not yet been given the green light. The EU government leaders at the Copenhagen summit of December 2002 did not consider Bulgaria and Romania to be ready, although they did acknowledge the considerable progress both countries had made so far:
• Bulgaria did meet the political criteria, but it still had much to do to strengthen the judiciary, combat corruption and cross-border crime and eliminate discrimination against the Roma minority. Economically, Bulgaria was not yet able to compete with EU market forces. It also needed to ensure transparent public procurement procedures and protect intellectual property rights better. The country was told to improve its energy supply strategy and to decommission four reactors of the Kozloduy nuclear plant. Equal treatment of men and women still needed to be enacted in law. Finally, Bulgaria needed to adopt stronger environmental legislation. Parliament also criticised the continuing discrimination under law against homosexuals.
• Romania fulfils the political criteria as well, but corruption remains a serious problem. Economically, the country would also not be able to compete with EU market forces yet. Little progress has been made on the free movement of goods and people and Romania lacks the administrative capacity to enforce new environmental legislation. Energy policy has been inconsistent. Although border control and migration policy have significantly improved, the capacity for border management needs to be reinforced. The weakness of the administration in many important sectors is still a cause for serious concern. In its reports Parliament has repeatedly pointed to the abuse and neglect of children in Romanian state institutions and the problems of street children and child trafficking, but the country has since taken important steps to improve the treatment of children.
• In view of this situation, the EU government leaders decided in December 2002 in Copenhagen to continue the accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania and to intensify the efforts to prepare them for entry into the EU, by 2007.
• Romania concluded the EU accession negotiations in December 2004.
• The country has signed the Accession Treaty in April 2005.
• Therefore, after about ten years of struggling to implement judiciary, economical and political reforms, after five years of negotiations with EU, appears to be right on track to become a member of the EU on 1 January 2007.
• In 2004 the European Commission gave Romania the "functioning market economy" and recommend that Romania and Bulgaria are fit to join the EU bloc in 2007 if they implement agreed reforms especially in justice.

Well, nobody can say this was/is easy!!!

At this moment Romania is an accession country and it is evaluated to be on track for 2007 accession to the European Union.

While Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession seems a done deal and it has not been treated anymore in his Thursday speech in front of the EU Parliament, Mr. Blair said that during the UK's upcoming presidency, it would focus on resolving the budget dispute and the EU's "obligations" to countries like Turkey and Croatia that hoped to become members.

The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair urged EU to go for reforming its finances and priorities and he emphasized that EU must face up to the challenges of globalization by key reforms.

He said: "It is a time to recognise that only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism and therefore its support among the people."
"Ideals survive through change, they die through inertia in the face of challenge."